The scenario seems to assume a doctor with only the basic skills assumed. But the question would be rather - if you knew you were going back to face the plague - what would you do?
Clearly it is futile to imagine that anyone will recreate Florey and Chain’s work ab-initio. But you could spend some time researching and prototyping how to make antibiotics. With modern knowledge of the precise culture mediums, filtration steps and the ability to research the materials and technology available in the historical era, it may well be feasible to spend a few years developing the ability to create a scratch start production. Work it out. Actually do it, work out what you could do better, do it again, and again. When you finally have it solid, then go back in time. Also, better do a lot of research on the language of the time too. Plus, immunisation against bubonic plague, and about everything else you can think of would be a good idea.
Of course the earlier comments are the (literal) killer. A couple of naked guys manifesting in medieval England one day are not going to live very long. You will have less than 24 hours to find clothing and food without being killed or imprisoned. That you can read and write will be a good start, and will get some attention. But you are going to need some saleable capabilities right away. A doctor that can set bones, tend to major injuries (albeit with a likely poor prognosis in the face of sepsis) is going to be valued. It strikes me that dental skills might be more valued. An ability to create gold fillings would be very valued amongst the rich. Obstetrics is another area - even of there might be demarcation issues. But a well rounded GP of the old school would probably find a lot to contribute. But building trust might be interesting. If you can gain the trust of a wealthy and powerful patron, getting the materials and assistance to start the antibiotic production might be feasible. If your immunisation against the plague is fully effective you may survive long enough to do well, or be burnt at the stake.
I think this is the best plan and you won’t even need a physician. Of course, you’ll need a priest, instead. Get one who’s still reasonably fluent in Latin, transport him back to Rome to establish his* bonafides* with the Pope, and have the Church convince people that sanitation is at least as important as the Crusades. Heck, pass out indulgences for each rat collected.
If you think about it, it’s not very much different than being a missionary in a third world country today. Start with basic things like clean water and subsistence agriculture and work your way up to saving souls.
So me, a doctor and a Roman Catholic priest turn up naked in 1349…the barman says, “Is this some kind of joke?”
Seriously though, would 14th century Catholicism and the Church even be recognisable to a 21st century Roman Catholic priest? I’m trying to keep our party alive long enough to do some good, but the shifts in doctrine over the centuries might get us all labelled as heretic blasphemers when our priest says that purgatory doesn’t exist and that the sale of indulgences is a sin.
The plague, according to the history that I have read, originated in Asia and then spread to Europe. The Mongol Empire was still in place at the time. Your time travelers might have better success if they concentrated their efforts on heading things off in pre-plague Asia. From what I understand, the Mongol empire was a fairly enlightened and sophisticated place compared to Europe in the same era. The Khans might be more receptive to your ideas.
People often talk about old-fashioned poultices made from moldy bread as if they did any good. But really, that’s just cherry-picking and wishful thinking: The same books that advised mold poultices for some sorts of wounds also advised all manner of other poultices that would certainly have made things far worse. About the best that can be said of a moldy-bread poultice is that it’s probably less dangerous than, say, a dung poultice, or a mercury poultice.
In one of my classes as a grad student, we went through (what my professor considered to be) the 25 most influential papers in the history of biology. One of them involved the proof of penicillin’s effectiveness as an antibiotic. I was surprised to see them basically say “You grow a bunch of this mold, then run it through a juicer. The resulting mold juice kills germs and is easily tolerated; we poured a bunch of it into (some guy)'s eye and it was no trouble!” So you might be able to save yourself and a few close friends, although it does depend on how susceptible 14th century Y. pestis was to penicillin.
No. I mean, you’re right that you could make a living that way. But you’d ruin your reputation as a doctor. Doctors didn’t set bones or do dentistry. Surgeons set bones and did dentistry.
And how come everyone’s assuming you’ll get burned at the stake for telling people to wash their hands? Pretty much every book of hygiene and medicine in the Middle Ages recommended frequent bathing and keeping clean. I think some people have misconceptions about the middle ages.
And, for Ralph, the Black Death did hit Greenland. In fact, the Black Death is one of the leading theories as to why the Greenland colony disappeared.
Being burned at the stake is a bit of a joke really. But the grim reality is that all societies have entrenched power structures, and bucking them enough that you are threatening the entrenched powers will usually get you into deep trouble. Turning up in medieval Britain with lots of knowledge and skills and seeking to change the world is going to get you into conflict with someone in power. So political skills will be needed. The strangers that cause trouble and somehow always survive the plague when all around are dying are going to be a very convenient scapegoat. I think one can be sure that many that were burned at the stake were not victims of superstition so much as victims of being on the wrong side of power plays, or just being in the wrong place when blame was being handed out. Even religious burnings can be largely characterised this way.
Didn’t they already know this, sorta? Not germ theory, but that living in filth wasn’t very healthy? I have a series of books called ‘A History of Private life’. In the volume on the Middle Ages, I get the impression that people weren’t oblivious to the dangers of wading through filth in medieval cities, it’s that there wasn’t much choice. If 21st century guy pays a visit to 14th century London, he’s gonna find he cant stay clean even if he wants to. Where you gonna get water to bathe in? Or wash your clothes? The Romans solved this by being a wealthy and stable society that could afford to build and maintain big infrastructure projects in their cities.
The Black Death was famously minimized in Poland by strict quarantine measures at the borders. So quarantine was not only known and occasionally practiced, it could be very effective if ruthlessly enforced.
Fortunately you’ve got utter ruthlessness at hand in the form of medieval nobility, and the right tool to motivate them – fear. So I think something could be accomplished just by relentlessly emphasizing the importance of quarantine.
While you’d have to really try hard to get burned at the stake, the reason you probably won’t be that successful is that you don’t have connections, you don’t have credentials, and you don’t know anything about contemporary medicine. Think of the people today who go around peddling miracle cancer cures and things like that and how they’re viewed.
People are going to say, “Who are you? Who did you study under? You don’t know any modern medical authorities. Why should we listen to you?”